by Philbert Ono

About PHOTOGUIDE.JP

PHOTOGUIDE.JP is a Web site dedicated to showing what Japan is like with photos, videos, articles, and blog entries by me, Philbert Ono. By accessing PHOTOGUIDE.JP’s top page, you can easily navigate to or search for what interests you. There are images for all of the 47 prefectures which I have visited. The home page menus list some of the photo albums/sets/categories you can find here. I also use Twitter (@philbertono) to announce website updates. My video clips are all on YouTube and usually embedded in my online picture gallery.

PHOTOGUIDE.JP basically has four sections:

Japan Photos is my online collection of tens of thousands of photos of all of Japan’s 47 prefectures. The images are organized by prefecture/city/town/village. Some images are also organized according to theme. Most images are available for licensing (contact us).

Japan Articles is where I write full-length articles about Japan-related subjects.

Japan Blog (which you are reading now) is filled with my commentaries about Japan.

Japan Videos (YouTube) (username: photojpn) centers on Japanese festivals or matsuri. I like to capture the motions and sounds which still photos cannot capture or convey.

Some resources on this site are also shared with my sister site called PhotoGuide Japan (photojpn.org) which introduces Japanese photography.

My favorite subjects to shoot are traditional Japanese things like festivals (matsuri), castles, temples (especially National Treasures), women in kimono, sumo, cherry blossoms, etc. But I also shoot many other things in Japan. Although I have visited all 47 prefectures, there are still many places I plan to visit and introduce on this site. Just about every month, I visit a place or see something I’ve never visited or seen before in Japan. I specialize in Tokyo (where I live) and Shiga Prefecture (my ancestral home) which is next to Kyoto.

My photos are organized in coherent photo sets (albums) which give you a good idea of what a place or festival looks like. I’m a prolific shooter and can easily shoot several hundred pictures a day. I select the best ones and put them in a logical sequence for you to view online. One photo set (for a festival, etc.) may have up to 250 images. You will never see this many pictures in any travel guide book on Japan.

My main motivation behind all of this is that, I want to rediscover Japan for myself and to promote tourism in Japan at the same time. I want more people from overseas to visit Japan. (As well as residents to discover more about the country they live in.) To show that Japan is much more than just Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mt. Fuji. Visiting Japan, even as a tourist, is the first step toward understanding the country better.

About Me
Based in Tokyo, I’m an American citizen of Japanese ancestry born and raised in Hawaii, USA. Graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I now live and work in Tokyo, Japan. I am fluent in Japanese–reading, writing, and speaking. You can read more about me here.

Enjoy!

Philbert Ono
Tokyo, Japan

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